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Game of Thrones: 11 Burning Questions About White Walkers, Dragons, and More

This post contains frank discussion of Season 7, Episode 6, “Beyond the Wall.” If you’re not caught up or don’t want to be spoiled, now would be the time to leave. Seriously, I won’t warn you again. Skedaddle.

This episode was packed with a lot of action, as well as, surprisingly, a lot of new rules of the Game of Thrones universe. These rules—specifically as they pertain to White Walkers—will be vital in understanding the war to come in Season 8, so make sure you caught them all.

How Do Those Flaming Swords Work, and Why Doesn’t Everyone Have One? In the books, Thoros of Myr lights his sword with wildfire, while Beric uses his own blood (and some magic) to light the flame. That’s how the show version of the character seemed to do it when he fought the Hound back in Season 3. There was a whole ritual and everything. So that explains why they were so rare back then.

But now, they just seem to turn on whenever Thoros and Beric want them to. Handy! So once again, I wonder why everyone didn’t have one of those in this particular fight. Then again, it didn’t save Thoros of Myr.

Also, always make sure your flaming sword is out before continuing on your quest, and be sure not to use them as a heat source during a long night in the cold.

How, Exactly, Do You Kill a Wight?: Back in Season 1, the only way to kill a wight was to use fire. This, eventually, was how to Jon was able to stop one from attacking Lord Commander Mormont in the episode “The Pointy End.” In fact, nothing else he tried worked. This is Jon struggling against just one reanimated corpse.

Okay: so why were Jorah, Tormund, and the rest able to cut through all those wights this week like they were paper?

Well, somewhere between Season 1 and Season 7, the rules changed slightly. Turns out dragonglass can take out a wight and a White Walker. Jon said as much this season in Episode 2.

And if you look closely, in this episode, Jorah has a dragonglass dagger, Tormund has a dragonglass axe, and even the red shirts had dragonglass-tipped spears.

The episode didn’t bother to show the team gearing up (why not?), but upon close examination, the dragonglass weapons explain why Jon and his friends were able to survive as long as they did. (Jon, of course, came well-equipped with his White-Walker-busting Valyrian sword.) Apparently dragonfire cannot melt a White Walker, though. We saw the Night King stroll right through one blast.

But let’s remember: there’s one more way to kill a White Walker.

The “Sire” Approach: The concept of “sires” is quite popular in vampire lore, but in this week’s episode we see it applied to White Walkers as well. Jon and his friends discover that when you kill a White Walker, you also kill all the wights it has made (or “sired”). This is a huge new rule, and changes everything we know about the war to come.

Now, instead of a fight against a massive army, it becomes a fight to kill one man—the man who made all the White Walkers and wights who serve him.

Can Wights Swim?: Some people wondered why the wights at Hardhome let Jon and his men get away in those boats. Or why they didn’t just swim around the Wall at any point. Well, turns out wights can’t swim. Now we know.

How Do You Kill a Dragon?: The scorpion bolt that Bronn sent flying at Drogon a few episodes ago barely pierced the dragon’s skin, but we’ve seen these ice weapons of the White Walkers do crazy things before.

So with a magical ice javelin and magical White Walker aim, you can take down a dragon. The Night King wisely aimed for the neck, where Viserion was gathering fire for his deadly blasts. The fire in the throat exploded and the poor dragon went down in flames.

We already knew the Night King could turn animals into zombies, thanks to the reanimated polar bear we saw earlier in the episode. We’ve also seen the White Walkers riding on the back of decaying horses. Will we eventually see Viserion decay? Sadly, probably, yes. For more info on zombie/ice dragons, you can go here.

Can Wights/White Walkers Talk?: In the past, these creatures have seemed to communicate telepathically—but in this episode the wight that Jon and his friends kidnap seems to scream for help. And help arrives.

How Long Does It Take a Wight to Turn?: Given what we’ve seen the past few seasons, the process of turning a dead person into a wight seems pretty instantaneous. That doesn’t seem to have been the rule back in Season 1, when a couple of dead men snuck into Castle Black by. . .playing possum? It’s unclear. But back then even Sam knew the score, saying those corpses (who were long decayed) didn’t smell like rot the way they should have. “Touched by white walkers,” he later explains, “that’s why they came back. That’s why their eyes turned blue.”

Okay, But Can the Dead Cross the Wall?: Last season, Benjen Stark explained the protective rules of the Wall: “The Wall’s not just ice and stone,” he told Bran and Meera. “Ancient spells were carved into its foundation. Strong magic. To protect men from what lies beyond. And while it stands, the dead cannot pass. I cannot pass.” This, many speculated, was why it has taken the White Walkers so long to come south. They’ve been trying to figure out a way to break the spells.

But then, how did those wights cross into Castle Black in Season 1? How did the Hound haul a struggling wight through the Eastwatch gate in this week’s episode? Was the Hound able to succeed because Daenerys flew him over? Once again, the rules seem unclear.